Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
😮‍💨 To breathe fast 😮‍💨 To make breathe fast
to hyperventilate

to hyperventilate

18 7.5
Breathe too quickly and deeply, often because you feel very scared
  • verb
  • /ˌhaɪpərˈvɛntɪˌleɪt/
translation icon : hiperventilar
  • I became afraid the boy might crack a rib, or hyperventilate, or foul himself.
  • start hyperventilating
  • begin to hyperventilate
  • stop hyperventilating

Shit myself, I started hyperventilating and she did this.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Animal, the lone figure, just stands there, his chest heaving, hyperventilating.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • I sat there breathing and trying to bring myself back from hyperventilating.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • I get in the ice water, I hyperventilate, and then I hit this moment where I'm like, OK, I'm in control.

  • The panic made things worse; he started to hyperventilate, and every breath stabbed him.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • His breathing is bothered; he makes a determined effort not to hyperventilate.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Cash looks over at Jack; he's really losing it, sobbing into the bag, almost hyperventilating.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • So I'm reading this, and all of a sudden I start hyperventilating... ...because there it is right in front of me in Ubilla's last letter to Francesca.

    Fool's Gold (2008)

  • The prisoner shook her head convulsively, her chest leaping as she hyperventilated in terror, and the colonel nodded silently.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • When he saw the spider, he began to hyperventilate from fear.

  • She felt overwhelmed during the exam and started to hyperventilate as anxiety set in.

Synonyms

to pant
vsto hyperventilate
95 1.6

To breathe quickly and loudly, often after exercise or excitement

is abnormally fast and deep breathing that lowers blood carbon dioxide

How Fast

to hyperventilate
18 7.5
pant
5 2.0
to breathe
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

hyperventilate infinitive
hyperventilated past
hyperventilated past participle
hyperventilating present participle
hyperventilates third person singular

Morphology

hyperventilate = ventilate (semi-transparent) = hyper + ventilate

The prefix hyper- clearly indicates excess, but the specialized medical sense of ventilate makes the full meaning only partly predictable.

Etymology

Hyperventilate comes from hyper- meaning 'over' or 'too much' and ventilate meaning 'move air'. So, to hyperventilate is to breathe too much or too quickly, which often happens in a panic and can make you feel dizzy.